


Splinters

by crossoverAUman



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence- Revenge Of The Fallen, F/F, F/M, M/M, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28740084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossoverAUman/pseuds/crossoverAUman
Summary: Egged on by my friends, I pose a question: What if OP won the Forest Battle in ROTF?
Relationships: Elita One/Optimus Prime, Grimlock/Misfire (Transformers), Megatron/Nightbird (Transformers), Ratchet/Wheeljack (Transformers)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

Tanks rolling and surging, Optimus nearly purged as he came down from the sensory storm of the battle.

"Sam! Sam, where are you?!" He called, spark clenching. That Boy… That boy was the future of Cybertron, the future and the past, all curling up together on themselves like cybercats in the sun. Optimus spotted The Boy, hiding behind a tree, feeling a flash of nostalgia for all the hiding games he'd once played with Bumblebee. It came from nowhere, and only ages of experience kept him from stumbling at it. 

Suddenly…

"Optimus, _look out_!" Sam cried, but the warrior in Optimus Prime was already flaring up, ages of memory from his ancestral line warning him as he whirled around on one foot, the other smashing along Megatron's abdominals, sending pieces flying. A hand came out and instinctively blocked the claw like blade leveling itself at his Spark, and another grabbed his once-brother by the face, giving him the moment he needed to bring both together. 

Megatron didn't even have time to respond in the nanosecond before his Fusion Cannon went off, obliterating his cranial structure in an instant. Optimus hissed as his right hand got caught in the blast, taking it off in a burst of contained heat. 

He let Megatron's body drop, his shoulders sagging. He turned to see Starscream trying to snatch up his arm and fly away, but before the Vosnian could go any further, Optimus transformed his right hand and fired off two shots. The first went wild, because of the Spark-chilling exhaustion he felt, but the other struck home, blowing up the thrusters in the Seeker's back. He crashed, wiping out more trees, and Optimus slowly walked towards him, his left leg dragging a bit as debris caught in the gears of his hips. 

"No! No!" Starscream cried out, still trying to crawl away, even as he left the mangled remains of his legs behind. "I surrender, I surr!"

And then Optimus silenced him forever with a firm shot to his spark. He took solace in the fact that, in death, Starscream's facial plates had gone smooth, almost giving him a soft smile. 

He turned and found Sam once more, but instead of kneeling to pick The Boy up, he found himself collapsing to his knees, audials shorting out from the shock. It left him deaf, and so when Ratchet arrived, he merely let the medic treat him. 

Bumblebee had gathered up the two humans- his offspring _did_ so love them, so like Elita, so like Megatron had once been, even. He held them close to his Spark, and Optimus watched, closing his optics, unaware of Ratchet's panicked efforts to keep him in the realm of the living…

\-----

"Thank you."

Optimus blinked, sitting up as he did. He knew that voice…

"Ah, there he is. You crashed again, little brother."

"M… Megatron? What? How are…"

"Hmm, that's the question, isn't it, Ori? In short, we are in the Realm of The Primes, where we wait for our orders from Primus. Here we wait, little brother, to return to the world of the living."

"But… Megatron, you were not a Prime…" Optimus said, still confused but so happy not to be fighting his brother, even if it WAS just a hallucination before his death. 

"No, but I was the descendent of a prime, just as you were. Thus, here I wait. Come, brother. Walk with me. We have much to discuss, and very little time to discuss it."

So Optimus stood and walked with his brother from the room he'd found himself in. 

They came out, not to a hallway, but to a vision of the Crystal Gardens, as perfect as Optimus rendered them in his memory. 

"You always did love The Gardens…" Megatron mused. "I see this place as Six Lasers over Cybertron, myself, if you wanted to know."

Optimus remembered how Megatron had loved the amusement park, once, or at least how he had loved to bring sparklings. 

"Do you still bring little ones there?" Optimus asked, bemused. This, this was the Megatron he had loved, had called Brother, had been willing to die for, once. 

"Oh, often. There are so many little ones to bring…" Megatron said softly, looking at his hands. His frame was not that of the tank he had been when he died, nor the jet he'd been frozen as when he crashed to Earth. Instead, it was his original frame, the one he'd laboured over for cycles before declaring it finished, when they'd first become adults. It gleamed in the soft light of the Crystals, and Optimus felt himself smiling. "The Fallen ensured that… Optimus, we have no time. I wish we did but we do not. Brother, you must listen, and listen to me well. Earth, your humans, the entirety of existence, is at risk. The Fallen made himself my Master, but he has a greater Master yet."

"Who is The Fallen, Megatron? Everything you did to Cybertron, to our people, you did of your own free will!"

"No!" Megatron snapped, the drills between his shoulders spinning angrily behind him as he swung, punching a Crystal in half. "No, Slag you, I did not! Listen to me, brother! _I was a slave!_ Sentinel brought me to Shockwave, once, after a sparring session. I woke up a prisoner in my own body, forced to watch as everything I loved became everything I hated, and forced to feel the joy as I destroyed it all! I was a puppet to my own darkness, a toy to the will of The Fallen!"

His shoulders sagged. "It doesn't matter. I will redeem myself in other worlds and other times. You must save our home _now_."

He said it firmly, with finality, and Optimus pressed their heads together as they had once done. 

"If this is no dream, tell me what must be done." 

Megatron smiled, drawing his fingers to Optimus's palm. 

"There is an ancient evil arriving, brother. The Fallen is but the beginning. Earth is home to a greater darkness but you can stop it, for the moment."

Fingers flexing, Megatron continued. "You must go to the pyramids in the land your humans call Egypt. You will find the weapons of The Fallen there. You must destroy them, all of them. The Solar Harvester will do more than drain the star warming your Earth. It will awaken Unicron. His coming will doom existence." 

Mist began to swirl about them- Megatron let his hand slip from Optimus's with a sad smile. 

"You must go, little brother. Your work remains unfinished. Find The Tomb. Save everything."

And as Optimus began to feel _pain_ once more, as he came back to his body, he translated the hand writing his brother had done. 

_Do not destroy the Requiem Blaster. Greater threats than even Unicron will soon turn their eyes to the Multiverse we call home, and you will need it. Your human Prime will be the Master of it. Trust him as he trusts you. Elita is waiting, when your work is truly done, and I will be waiting with her. We have missed you. Now go. Live._

"-timus! Optimus! _Orion!_ "

And Optimus Prime woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

It was painful, sometimes (always, _always _), to look at Arcee. The tripartite Spark in the body of his love was like being stabbed, over and over. It was worse, though, for Ironhide. Optimus knew that, and it was soothing, as much as it shamed him to say. He and Elita had been in love (of course he had loved her, they'd been built to be together, designed to be each of the other's only equal) but had never Bonded. The Matrix that protected his Spark since Onlining also prevented him from Bonding.__

__Ironhide had never had such a limit, and now he paid for his Spark Bond with Chromia by feeling her dying over and over again, every time Arcee entered the room. He paid for his love with agony the likes of which Optimus could not imagine._ _

__But if Ironhide could go on, so too could Optimus Prime. Even as Ratchet forced him to sit while the medic rebuilt him a hand (muttering about Shoddy Materials the whole while), the Prime was making plans._ _

__"We need more than what we have… we need an army once more." He mused, seeing Sam nodding even as he couldn't sit still._ _

__"Samuel."_ _

__All eyes and optics turned to him._ _

__"We need help. What do you suggest, Boy?"_ _

__Everyone else might have thought he'd gone crazy, but Sam only nodded, closing eyes that no longer felt truly human, and then every living being in the room felt… something. It was a call, a call to arms, a call to action, a call to set aside the war for a moment, if only a moment. Men hardened by years of combat fell to their knees, weeping. Mecha sagged under the weight of it and some, human and Cybertronian alike, began to pray. Optimus had never had much of a chance to observe humans in prayer, though he'd seen several videos, and it was shocking to him how _familiar_ it was. It was almost like being in Simfur once again, in a way. Prayer was not a rigid thing, but everyone prayed the same, in some aspects. Humanity and Cybertronian customs were remarkably similar, and Elita would have had a field day cataloging them all._ _

__When the feeling began to pass, and people began to pick themselves up, with a few muted "The fuck was that?"'s thrown in for good measure, Sam gave Optimus a small smile that seemed older than The Boy's face and yet younger than an infant._ _

__"Sam, what did you _do?_ " Mikaela asked, and Optimus could see the tears running down her cheeks even as she desperately tried to scrub them away. "What was that?"_ _

__"We needed help," The Boy said in a wan tone. "So so so I, I called for help."_ _

__"Indeed," Optimus said, closing his optics and leaning back against the trunk of a tree once again. He wanted to look down at Ratchet working, but the thought of looking at his appendage and seeing the hand that had once been Megatron's (even that false one) was too much to process at that exact moment. He'd trust Ratchet to make it fit his transformation later, just as he would trust Sideswipe to paint it to match until Sunstreaker arrived one day._ _

__"Alright, Optimus. This is as good as it can be, for the moment." Ratchet said gently, an hour later. It woke the Prime from his nap, and he felt his Matrix nudge him gently._ _

__"Good," he mused, looking at the hand and flexing the joints. "You've done well, Ratchet."_ _

__Ratchet scowled at the compliment. "I haven't, so don't lie. I'm a field medic, not a reconstructionist. I'd have given you to Swoop if he were here. You'd have never known it was ever someone else's."_ _

__"Very well. It's horrid and you're fired, old friend." Optimus said in a dry tone. "I'd rather be operated on by Pharma, if you don't mind. He'd have let me die cycles ago."_ _

__Raising an optic ridge, Ratchet gave his Prime a _look_ , and the two began to laugh, tension leaving their bodies. _ _

__"Lennox," Optimus said, when his laughter had subsided. "We're going to need a plane."_ _

__"Where are we heading, boss-bot?" The N.E.S.T commander asked, quickly reassembling his gun. The whole of the unit stood as one, ready for whatever was about to happen._ _

__"Samuel has the coordinates. Samuel will guide you."_ _

__It was hard, admitting he didn't have the answer, but The Matrix seemed to approve, and Sam was already frantically scooting around the clearing, using a stick to scratch glyphs into the dirt. He was muttering formulaic equations to himself that humanity shouldn't have even begun to guess at, and the glyphage itself was… erratic, at best. Yet it was _accurate_ , and Sideswipe, he noticed, had beat Skids and Mudflap over the head a time or two to get them to watch. _ _

__"Hey, hey, out of the circle!" Sam snapped, poking Lennox in the chest with his drawing stick. It reminded Optimus of Kup. "You wanna get, get crushed?! Wheelie! Wheelie, where's Wheelie, there you are! Get over here and keep people out of the circle, boy!"_ _

__"The Boy grows more erratic by the moment. I worry he can't contain this knowledge much longer and remain himself."_ _

__Turning, Optimus looked at Ratchet, nodding. "I am aware. Yet… The Boy has a part to play in coming events. A greater part than I can yet describe, Ratchet." He admitted, only to flare his plating up as Samuel stepped away from the circle and it began to crackle with energy._ _

__"What the _flying hell_ , man?!" He heard Epps exclaim as they all jumped back, guns akimbo for a moment before coming up at the ready, pointed at the circle. Bumblebee let out a shriek of static and scooped Sam up to his chest, holding his human charges in one hand, the other transformed into a blaster and already primed to fire. _ _

__The circle shot off a bolt of light, and Ratchet began to whirl his saw defensively as it blew a hole right through five different cloud formations (though it might, to give it credit where due, have gone through more before Optimus lost sight of it) and the crackling was joined by a painfully loud humming sound. It all came together in a rolling, rippling _POP!_ of displaced air as a jet suddenly appeared within the circle. An SR-71 Blackbird, if he wasn't mistaken. _ _

__"I got us a plane!" He heard Sam call out, before the 'plane' began to transform in a whip-crack of movement._ _

__"Hold your _fire_ ," Optimus called, holding up a fist to still the soldiers as the transformation continued. The scent of rust and dust hit his olfactory sensors, and by the difficulty the bot was expressing (quite vocally, as well, with several quiet "Fresh fragging Pit-spawn sucking!"'s thrown in for good measure) it was clear that they hadn't transformed in a _very_ long time._ _

__The frame was massive, but ill-suited for life outside the gravity-defying spires of Vos or Praxus. The mecha needed a cane to stay mostly upright in the increased gravity of Earth, and his gyroscopes were clearly thrown out of balance by his confused state._ _

__"Ah! Ah, where is it? Where's the slagger who woke me up, I'll scrap him my!"_ _

__And then, the mech caught sight of Optimus, hobbling over, waving Ironhide out of the way as the bodyguard made his cannons whir and hum threateningly. "Oh go frag yourself," he snapped before looking Optimus up and down with a satisfied sigh. "Now that! That is a _Prime_! Oh to be sixty thousand cycles younger again!" He cackled. _ _

__Satisfied _and_ appreciative, it would seem. _ _

__"My name is Optimus Prime," Optimus began. "State your designation and who you serve, ancient one."_ _

__"I'm Jetfire! Jetfire, that's right, _the_ Jetfire, greatest Seeker to ever serve the Dynasty Of Primes! Yeh!" _ _

__The ancient seeker began to huff, forced to sit down, venting hard from exertion._ _

__"Now… where are we? Earth, still? Miserable little mudball, love it here, native organics are adorable. Like little turbofox kits, they are! Yeh! Whoof! Needa… Primus, I needa nap."_ _


	3. Chapter 3

It was pleasantly warm and dry, in this desert country. It reminded Optimus of sparklinghood trips to The Rust Sea, seeing the cyber-seals breaching the surface of the flakes, their carapaces glistening in the sun as they came up to clear their vents. This was a land of plenty, to a Cybertronian who had long gone without. It would be… nice, yes, to return to this land in peace, rather than war, Optimus thought. 

_-Elita would have loved it here-_ , Bumblebee said quietly from behind him. Optimus turned to face his offshoot, nodding. 

"She would have. I only wish we could see it with her in peace, rather than with a greater war ahead of us."

Sam, seated on his Guardian's shoulder, was muttering to himself, Wheelie in his lap. The Decepticon Sparkling (a Sparkling, a true Sparkling, after all these cycles reliant on Hatchlings and MTO models to propagate their species!) had his optics shuttered as Sam worked a wiring miracle on the child. It would have made Optimus shudder- it was almost too similar to Shadowplay!- but his Matrix was pulsing approval, and the little one had consented, after a hushed conversation between he, Sam, Ratchet and Jetfire. All anyone had said of the talk was "Medical Confidentiality", and a brief laugh from Jetfire. Whatever was occurring, it was good for Sam, if nothing else, a vent for his whirling thoughts and confusions. 

Mikaela was with Ratchet, going over the corpses of Megatron, Starscream and Grindor, searching for, as Mikaela had told him with a rictus grin, "Useful Parts", and Optimus could see her, silhouetted by the rising sun behind a sand dune, guarded by twelve or so N.E.S.T operatives with twitchy fingers, some still shaken by the fact that they'd brought to the field of battle by a plane that teleported more than it flew. Optimus could relate. Your first Ground Bridge could be offputting if you weren't ready for the experience. 

_\- We're in a lot of trouble. Sam can only ask for help in the here and now, not in enough time for help to arrive-_ Bumblebee said softly. It was true, but somehow, Optimus knew it wasn't the _full_ truth. It gave him hope, and he pulled his child in closer, putting their foreheads together. 

"Trust your charge, my little one. Trust in Primus. We will save humanity and our people both. Have faith. Faith is all we have, right now, and we cannot lose it."

Bumblebee gave a trill, nodding to his progenitor. The Scout had been a priest, once. He knew the words of The Covenant. 'Faith is the constant companion of a child of Cybertron' indeed. Faith in one's convictions and cause could keep a 'bot going against all odds for a very long time. 

Hours passed in the blink of an eye, and when The Fallen finally decided to arrive, the ancient, near eldritch Prime found himself amused enough by the assembled 'army' to land, towering over Optimus with a leering smirk as he grew nearer.

"Little Dearchild," he _hissed_ , plating rattling as he spoke. "Why do you stand against me in this?"

He was speaking in Protocybex. Anyone else wouldn't have understood him, but Orion Pax had been an Archivist. Even without The Matrix, he would have understood. 

"We do not stand against you," Optimus said firmly. "We stand in defense of this world, and the universe, against the threat of your Master, Unicron."

" _I was not speaking to_ you, _false claimant,_ " The Fallen hissed, nearly sending Bumblebee to his knees with the force of his EM Field. " _I was_ speaking _to my descendant!_ "

His staff raised, pointing at Bumblebee. No, not Bumblebee. Not Bumblebee. 

At Sam.

"I could see you _elevated_ , little one! I could grant you _Godhood_ , but you stand against me!" The entropic Prime said, voice full of emotion. It surprised Optimus how… _raw_ The Fallen sounded, how truthful his tone felt. Like he genuinely desired Sam at his side. 

"You know why," The Boy said, shocking everyone involved when he replied in perfect imitation of the whistles and guttural click-hackings that comprised Protocybex. "My ancestors stood United with humanity. We became human. This is my home, these are my people. What sort of Prime could I call myself if I didn't fight for them?"

The Fallen growled, but dipped his head respectfully. "Very well… there is honor in standing for a cause, even a poor one. When this planet is cold, and Unicron awoken, I will come for you again." He said in warning, before taking off with an echoing cry of "Kill them!"

" _Incoming!_ " Lennox called out, N.E.S.T operatives taking cover as Decepticon Hatchling Protoforms began to rain down, crashing into the sand even as they began to transform and fire. 

"Take cover!" Ironhide snapped, firing his cannons as Bumblebee nimbly ducked behind him, an arm shielding Sam from any stray shots. The Autobot Master-At-Arms and the Scout fired in nearly perfect tandem, opening up a gap for Arcee and Sideswipe to ram into, the four of them each a whirlwind of death. Optimus was far from idle himself, newly repaired swords flashing as he stabbed his way towards The Fallen, screaming out bloody murder in his desire for revenge. Revenge for Cybertron. Revenge for humanity, for Sam, and above all others, even Elita, he wanted revenge for Megatron. 

The Fallen was smirking, it seemed, as several construction vehicles surrounded Optimus, blocking him off from the other Autobots. He resisted, barely, the urge to gawk as the nine vehicles began to come together, an unholy abomination forming before his eyes. 

He'd seen a combiner before, of course. But this… this was no joining of equals to create a greater whole. It was no main body with drones forming the limbs, like Huffer. No, it was clearly agonizing, and the resulting combiner obviously mad from the pain of it. 

"We have more incoming, converging on Optimus! Somebody get over there and help him!" He heard Lennox snap over the coms. It was too late, though. He could see the Decepticon Warworld coming in for a landing above his head. 

Then, the most beautiful sound he'd ever heard, in at least six thousand years. 

" _Volcanicus! Devastate! Devastator!_ "

And then a massive figure leapt from the ship, smashing into The Fallen's mad attack dog, sending it to the ground with a shriek of agony! It was almost as large, shaped like a dragon from human mythology, if a dragon had four wings and was comprised of smaller reptiles that were made of metal. 

"No fragging way!" He heard Ratchet mutter over the coms, but it was true. Sam's call for help had obviously reached somebody, somehow, with enough time to get them to Earth. 

Thank Primus those particular 'Sombodies' happened to be the second most violent group of Autobots in the universe. 

"Devastator! Destroy the Autobot!" The Fallen called, and the ape-like combiner was on his feet, ready to square off. It was going to be a clash of kings, but only one of them would be victorious.


End file.
